Tony Robbins, a media personality and self-help guru, has been accused of groping and kissing a teenage girl during a session he led at a summer camp in 1985, according to a Buzzfeed report, but the “Awaken the Giant” author denies the accusation.
The alleged sexual assault revelation comes as a part of the publication’s sixth installment of a seven-month series detailing multiple accusations the "Unlimited Power" author engaged in sexual misconduct that dates back to the 1980s. In the report, which was published Friday, the victim is identified by only a first name, Elle. The report says Elle provided a 2,400-word account through her lawyers. Robbins, 59, has adamantly denied the claims and says he plans to sue Buzzfeed.
»MORE: Who is Tony Robbins? 5 things to know about the self-help guru
Robbins was 25 at the time of the alleged incident. According to Elle, Robbins seemed to fixate on her during that SuperCamp session held at Westmont College in Montecito that summer in 1985, when she was a high school student, the report claims. Two more people who say they witnessed the alleged assault also gave corroborating accounts.
"At the end of the last session, the guru (Robbins) had asked her to accompany him on a walk through the trees; they pressed on until they reached a clearing. There, she recalled in a 2,400-word account provided through her lawyers, he forced himself upon her — kissing her and groping her breasts in a prolonged sexual assault," reads the Buzzfeed report.
In her account of the events, Elle says Robbins pressed himself against her back during one activity and called her fascinating. Robbins allegedly forced himself on her and only stopped when he “got frustrated and realized that too much time had passed.”
“Next he tried to manipulate me into believing I had initiated it before taking off at a fast run through the trees and brush toward the gym,” she said in the report from Buzzfeed.
Steffanie Scott, then 15, told BuzzFeed she was jogging nearby and saw Robbins pinning a camper's arms back as he aggressively kissed her.
"He was going for her, his whole body was pressed up against her,” Scott said. Eva Bush, 16 at the time, said she also saw Robbins with his arms around the helpless camper. “It was the most horrifying thing I’d ever seen,” she told BuzzFeed. Tamara Drean, a camp counselor who was 31 at the time, said she recalled comforting Elle after the girl reported the incident that same day.
“I believe she told me he touched her breasts and tried to kiss her,” Drean told BuzzFeed.
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On Friday, Robbins denied any wrongdoing and said he plans to file a lawsuit against BuzzFeed.
"I am now suing BuzzFeed following a premeditated and malicious campaign against me and my life's work," he said in a statement on Medium.com. "In a series of articles this year, BuzzFeed falsely accused me of abusing my position and making inappropriate advances toward employees and event attendees as well as berating abuse victims at my seminars," he wrote. "BuzzFeed once again has published false stories. Enough is enough," his spokeswoman Jennifer Connelly said in an email to the Daily News on Friday.
Elle’s lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Robbins left the SuperCamp session shortly after the August 1985 incident and didn’t return, according to Buzzfeed’s report.
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